Four incidents of firing in Delhi in the past two years, including two audacious murders, and now a daring killing of a gangster in Lucknow — these incidents have all highlighted the appalling state of security arrangements in India’s courtrooms. Despite a flurry of announcements of expansive law-and-order arrangements, increased deployment of police personnel, setting up of metal detectors, and surveillance cameras, assailants are able to walk into court premises with ease, conceal their firearms and gain access to courtrooms with no personnel stopping or frisking them. Worryingly, the modus operandi in both the 2021 Delhi murder of gangster Jitender Mann alias Gogi, and the June 2023 killing of Sanjeev Maheshwari or Jeeva inside the Lucknow district and sessions court are similar — the assailant dressed up as a lawyer and dodged security arrangements to walk straight into a courtroom with a firearm. This is criminally negligent.
Courtrooms are among the most sensitive places in a city where hardened criminals, hapless undertrials, vulnerable witnesses and inconsolable victims are often huddled inside the same room. In many cases, the participants in a trial are minors. Ensuring their physical security is the least the administration can do to ensure that the judiciary functions in a just and efficient manner. This is why the courts have expressed concern about the state of security in judicial complexes. Unfortunately, the problem lies as much in intent as in implementation. The administration will need to redouble efforts to secure courtrooms, convince lawyers and court staff not to bypass safety procedures and plug loopholes. Courtroom shootings cannot be tolerated.
